


Vampire

by dragonlover



Category: Dracula & Related Fandoms, Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen, Masochism, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2010-04-30
Updated: 2010-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-15 22:08:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29815104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonlover/pseuds/dragonlover
Summary: A half-mad closeted transgender Sangheili (written like a closeted gay character because I was a closeted trans writer at the time) rambles a prayer to the Forerunners, confessing his sins in allowing Count Dracula to gain control of his ship and threaten the Covenant.





	Vampire

Oh, great Forerunners! Please, grant me mercy! I am not a Prophet… I am but a mere Sangheili… But surely you, who have seen so much, can appreciate the torment I go through! Please, my… my lords… Please! I beg of you! Rid from me this evil that courses through my veins! I am but a humble… I am not a Prophet, those who see with the eyes of gods, who can see through divine fabric, I am a mere mortal who pleads for your forgiveness. And mercy.

Forgive me, lords, I have not… I do not have great knowledge of prayer. I am a mere Sangheili pretending to be a Prophet as he waits in his jail cell for his Excellency’s… But I have achieved much in the last few cycles. I have ascended, my lords! I am not a Prophet, but I am greater than a Sangheili. Surely that grants me an audience with you?

Indeed, I have grown with his gift. He has… But perhaps you do not know my tale? I have been what I am for a very short time, and I have never called council with you before! Where to begin? At the beginning, I’m sure. But where was the beginning? Everything is related, lords. Every aspect of my life played a part…

I am Erem ‘Fenrelidee. Fifty-nine cycles past, I was born in the city of Pious Remembrance, which rests upon the Sangheili homeworld of _Sanghelios_. I was trained at the ancient academy, which trained the first Arbiters back during the Ages of Abandonment and of Conflict. It was the greatest choice one could hope for, and yet…

I was never the perfect image of what a warrior should be. I was… preoccupied with thoughts of… of masculinity. It was not the simple urge to become strong and honorable felt by most males of my age, it was far greater than something so petty. I felt… I wanted the other males to admire me as I admired them. Most who felt such feelings would devote their lives to the ascension of rank to prove their worth but I had never really considered it, lords, I…

I trained. I wished to be rid of these thoughts, so I trained hard. I soon was accepted to the military under class of Minor, but did not retire as I was urged to do. I wanted… I suppose I wanted them to admire me as I admired them, so I left home on the frigate _Salvation_ …

This is all unimportant, I know, my lords, but it is why I… It is how I justified my actions. I suppose I should speak to you now of the evil I let inside. Yes, of course. I was on the _Beacon_ at the time, and I was a Major.

We had detected a Human craft, and the Ship Master had wished for us to board it and obtain its records. According to our scans, the ship had no life onboard, and it was on a course directly towards a nearby star, suggesting the presence of valuable information they wished to keep from us.

Lords, I… I was on the first of the boarding parties. We found… no records, but we found the bodies. Human corpses littered the decks, hundreds of them. They were all pale and lifeless, but for one. We found him in a Human sleeping pod, tucked away in a corner of the cargo hold.

The perfect hostage, I was sure.

“Let us bring it back,” I said, “Let us see what it knows.”

So, we brought the sleeping pod back with the Human inside, we took a few corpses for study, and then let the derelict fall into the star.

The Ship Master did not agree with my choice, however. But he allowed it, as long as I would agree to be entirely responsible for the interrogation. I, of course, agreed. I took the Human to the brig, released it from the pod and placed it in a cell.

This was when I had my first true chance to examine it. He was approximately six units tall, a rarity among Humans, and appeared to have only recently achieved adulthood. His skin… so flushed was it with red blood that I did not realize it was of the Caucasian variety for some time after. I estimated him to be a civilian from the face… he allowed fur to grow above his mouth, and his teeth appeared to have been artificially sharpened.

I knew the Humans believed such things to be fearsome if worn correctly, supporting my belief that the Human was perhaps of a rebel faction or simply a criminal. I thought perhaps this would heighten the possibility of it revealing information, and I began the interrogation.

“Human,” I said to it, “Tell me the locations of your colonies.”

A simple request. However the Human stared at me as though it… as if it had never heard the words before. It asked where it was.

“In a prison cell within the _Beacon_ ,” I told it. “A frigate of the Covenant.”

It then asked what the Covenant was! It simply did not know! It must have been in its sleeping pod for over thirty of its years, I reasoned. And indeed he was. However, I had no way to tell if it was merely seeking to mock me. I… It… I connected it to the interrogation device, and as I activated it, I declared, “We are your nightmares!”

But the creature hardly seemed affected… It laughed! It squirmed, not from agony, but in delight. The pain it felt was not pain to it, it was… something else.

“Are you devils?” it asked of me. “Is this Hell?”

Hell, I recalled from my studies, was the Human’s afterlife for those who committed great sin. If it expected to be in Hell, it must have considered its life to be stained with such sin.

“It is not,” I replied. “However, you may view it as such.”

For Hell is a place of great torment and misery… But you must know that, for you are gods.

I heightened the energy flow, expecting it to scream. This time, the Human reacted negatively, jerking and gasping. I smiled with satisfaction, but it was in vain… He… it… laughed again, loud and high in pitch.

“Thank you,” the Human said and, Holy Forerunners, he meant it!

“I have not felt so alive in a great many years! Tell me, who is my benefactor?” it asked then, indicating myself.

I was… bemused. I had never encountered anything of this nature before… to my knowledge. (Wait, yes… I…) I knew the Jiralhanae would at times bite themselves to increase their bodies’ production of endorphins, allowing them greater physical ability for short periods of time. However, I had never heard of any creature taking a pure _enjoyment_ from…

When my caretaker first taught me the _Shuni_ word for pain… I was confused… I see that now… I did not understand her explanation. She told me it was when I hurt, but I said that it was sometimes good. She responded that I was just confused, that pain was always bad…

But not always! I was that way… _before_ him. It was buried under the great expanse of time, just as was he. He brought it out of me… Gods! Dear Forerunners, it was _me_ … I was the one all along! I… I have gone too far ahead in my tale. I am sorry, my lords. So sorry. (So sorry, so sorry, so sorry, so sorry, so sorry, so sorry, so sorry…)

I told him my name and my rank.

“It was I who insisted you be left alive,” I said then. “If you will not answer my questions…” And if I COULD NOT torture you! “…Then I shall correct my mistake.”

“Good day to you, Major ‘Fenrelidee,” the Human said, lightly bowing its head in acknowledgement. “I was once a military man myself, a warrior most powerful. Have you seen battle, Major? Have you spilled blood?”

Blood… Yes, blood. The blood is the life! He… But, I… I told him, then, that Covenant ranks were based on the number of kills made. I told him I had killed over one hundred Humans. I spoke proudly, and expected him to… but he defies expectation.

“I have killed over one hundred thousand Humans,” it replied with a smirk. I knew it told the truth, it was a look that radiated from its eyes. The interrogation device confirmed it, but I _knew_ from gaze alone.

I then made the connection. All Humans on the craft dead, but for this one within a sleeping pod. The ship had been sent directly toward the nearby star, not to destroy records but this creature that murdered its kind. It was insanity, but I _knew_ the power this warrior had but from a simple gaze. Was this a blessing from you, or from him?

“For what purpose?” I asked it, then. I was… alarmed, yet I did not wish to halt the interrogation. I had no way of knowing what was to come. I was not a Prophet. I sought to reason with it, to make it voluntarily deliver information.

“Life,” he answered simply. “I take life to give life. From death comes sustenance. The blood is the life, Major ‘Fenrelidee.”

I was surprised by its words. The blood is the life… The blood _is_ the life. I mean, I had never heard it described so succinctly. It was true, of course, but I had never… never even thought about it that way before him.

“Yes,” I agreed. “I suppose it is.”

That was it. I can see that now. That was how he captured me.

But what do such words truly mean, my lords? The blood is the life? Could he have claimed me were I not already open to such a truth? But perhaps it was not he, then, but I…

Never mind! I am stupid. I am little and weak in your shadows, great ones! With you I may have peace, my salvation. Holy Forerunners, I beg of you to hear my plea!

I was intrigued by the alien. For it to have spoken knowledge that I, a servant of the Covenant, did not possess… I engaged it in conversation.

It was an interrogation tactic, you see. If the Human could become comfortable talking about itself, it would surely speak of its homeworld. But no, you are gods and can see through my lies…

I wanted its knowledge for myself. It was an insightful creature, and I wanted to have all that it possessed. He had great strength, which I could not help but admire, alien or not.

I questioned of its time… killing its own kind. The Human told me stories, strange stories, of leading its armies against Human people.

The Human was a general. It had led armies that fought with ancient weapons, too primitive for even the Unggoy to conceive. It had collected many females that it had bound to him for life… such life. Finally, he had taken residence within a great stone fortress on the Human continent known as Europe.

Finally, you see! Finally, I had a glimpse of the Humans’ homeworld! I asked it to which planet Europe was of possession, and it had replied simply, “Earth.”

Earth! Such a name. The Humans, lowliest of creatures, had seen fit to call their own homeworld _dirt_.

I then asked it where the Covenant could locate Earth, but it refused to answer. However… It made a request.

Just a small one, really.

You see, I had tried to keep the Human healthy. I had asked for Human food to be delivered to its cell, but it denied the food. It DENIED… and now it requested something…

It is rather funny, you know. I sought Earth, and he sought… earth. The Human requested that dirt be brought from his sleeping pod, brought to his cell, and this would allow him to sleep. In return, he promised to grant me great knowledge that would allow me to become a great conqueror.

I should not have agreed. I did, anyway. I wanted this Human’s knowledge. I wanted it to be encouraged to give it to me, and if pain would not function as an incentive…

I had the Unggoy fetch the dirt and leave it strewn about on the cell floor. The Human asked to sleep upon it, but I insisted that he share his great knowledge. It did not reveal the location of Earth, but… I had not expected it to, not really.

Instead, it told me a tale most unfathomable. He spoke of a demon grabbing him and drinking of his blood. “The blood is the life,” he stated, calmly moving forward to describe how he supposedly transformed from a normal Human into a monster.

This, of course, could not be truth. I could not imagine it could be possible. I ignored its words. I left the Human then. I reasoned that I would let it think about how important it was to obey the Covenant. But I thought…


End file.
